Greetings from Andreas

A new year has just started and we are excited to find out what it will bring to us.

I got the finest Christmas greeting from Sigurður Ólafur Sigurðsson at ICESAR (Icelandic Association for Search and Rescue) which I would like to quote: “… we all have either or both things in common, the love for search and rescue and the love for nature and the outdoors. To all of you I send me whole hearted wishes for merry Christmas and a happy new year. Thank you for your assistance, companionship, professionalism and friendship.”

I cannot find a better way to describe the spirit of the SAR community.

Stay safe out there.

The tiny vessel had been adrift for 50 days.

Miraculous rescue!

Yesterday three teenage boys were found at sea outside New Zealand after drifting 50 days in a small boat.

They managed to survive on rainwater, two coconuts and a seagull.

We cannot help but wonder if they had had cell phones…

Full article

Teenage castaways, Filo Filo, Samuel Perez and Edward Nasau with the aluminium craft in which they spent 50 days adrift. Photo: Tai Fredricsen

Nice view over the Tatra Monutains

IKAR 2010, High Tatra Mountains, Slovakia.

A sunny Slovakia welcomed us the first day of the conference and it was beautiful blue skies throughout the whole week. The arrangement was well organized with between 200 to 300 participants and around ten companies displaying their products in the showroom.

It was a good decision to participate this year too. Not only because of the nice weather and the fresh mountain air, but because we met participants from almost all European countries in our booth and learned tons of new stuff about their needs and thoughts. But most important of  all is that we are more convinced than ever that HEPKIE can make a difference in finding people and saving lives!

Except for asking about the HEPKIE system, how it works (just press the button and fly), when it will be available (before summer next year) and when they could test it (from February this winter), we got good insight in their major concerns with using our product. A common question was “what about integrity?”. ”If one can catch all phones in an area, will that not be violating the integrity?”. Well, we have a few answers to that question, and it depends on the search method, but the short one is: “There is no integrity problem.”

It is impossible for the rescue team to know who they are looking for. That sounds weird. What do I mean? The HEPKIE system only works with IMSI’s. An IMSI is the identity of your mobile subscription. When the rescue team gets the direction of the position of someone, they will actually see the direction towards a specific IMSI, not a phone number. HEPKIE can not search for phone numbers. The operator is the only one that can connect an IMSI to a phone number and thus to a certain person. So no one can use HEPKIE to go “hunting” for a celebrity by tossing in the phone number in the system.

In some search scenarios HEPKIE disconnects phones from their networks.  When you are a police organisation and is trying to find a person to save that person’s life, what comes first is finding that person. During the process people close to the search area may get disconnected from their networks for a little while. They will get back to their networks within minutes and their phones will work just fine.

Let me give you an example. There is an avalange. The rescue team on the scene do not know the number of persons, their identities nor the IMSI’s of their phones. The HEPKIE system jams all networks for 10-15 seconds. All IMSI’s within range will pop up on the screen. By using the search unit the rescuer will see the direction of each phone and the signal strength. If someone in the ski lift is caught by the HEPKIE system, obviously they are not in trouble, and they will be disconnected from the HEPKIE system as soon as the rescuer discovers that they are not the one he is looking for, and then go back to their mobile network.

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The Swedish delegation presenting the IKAR 2011 conference in Åre was in place. We enjoyed the company of this great team of nice people with vast competence. IKAR Åre will have accident prevention as the main topic. We will of course be there and plan for some real live demonstrations.

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Sandro explaining about HEPKIE.

Sandro did an excellent job in the booth and his multi linguistic skills were very handy. We had our market material in three languages (English, German and French) which was perfect for reaching out to all who prefer other languages than English. We brought a short commercial that ran on a screen at our booth. It too was in multiple languages and we spotted a lot of people watching while they were having coffee.

Our give-away

A funny thing is that we ran out of 200 small flash-lights we had as “give-aways” in one and a half days. “HEPKIE – the smart way to find missing people” finally has a meaning to everyone.

We brought home with us many requests for demonstrations of HEPKIE. We are looking forward to meeting you all during next year.

It is impossible for the rescue team to know who they are looking for. That sounds weird. What do I mean? The HEPKIE system only works with IMSI’s. An IMSI is the identity of your mobile subscription. When the rescue team gets the direction of the position of someone, they will actually see the direction towards a specific IMSI, not a phone number. HEPKIE can not search for phone numbers. The operator is the only one that can connect an IMSI to a phone number and thus to a certain person. So no one can use HEPKIE to go “hunting” for a celebrity by tossing in the phone number in the system.

In some search scenarios HEPKIE disconnects phones from their networks.  When you are a police organisation and is trying to find a person to save that person’s life, what comes first is finding that person. During the process people close to the search area may get disconnected from their networks for a little while. They will get back to their networks within minutes and their phones will work just fine.

Let me give you an example. There is an avalange. The rescue team on the scene do not know the number of persons, their identities nor the IMSI’s of their phones. The HEPKIE system jams all networks for 10-15 seconds. All IMSI’s within range will pop up on the screen. By using the search unit the rescuer will see the direction of each phone and the signal strength. If someone in the ski lift is caught by the HEPKIE system, obviously they are not in trouble, and they will be disconnected from the HEPKIE system as soon as the rescuer discovers that they are not the one he is looking for, and then go back to their mobile network.

IKAR-CISA congress 2009 in Zermatt

Last year it was held in Zermatt. It was a great experience. We had the opportunity to show and demonstrate our prototype to over 150 mountain rescuers on the glacier next to Kleine Matterhorn.

This year it is held in Slovakia. We are invited to use the booth of one of the world leading experts in avalanche products and search techniques, Manuel Genswein. This is a great honour and we are very grateful to Manuel. We are also invited to make a presentation on the Commission Meeting. Great stuff for a small company trying to enter the market.

Helicopter in action with antennas mounted

The helicopter search tests performed on April 30 in Östersund, Sweden, gave very positive results. Using our portable search unit we managed to find a telephone, carried by a man pretending to be lost in the forest, at a distance of 20 km. The search took approximately 15 minutes from starting up the helicopter to a visual identification of the man on the ground.

We used prototype full-size helicopter antennas, to correlate the direction of the helicopter with the direction of the phone. Also, with the bigger antennas we get better search performance due to increased sensitivity and accuracy, which means we can “hear” the telephone at a longer distance.

We are very greatful to Osterman Helicopter in Östersund for letting us use one of their helicopters.

”We were happy to contribute with our time and equipment for these tests. The Hepkie system is a very interesting concept and can be a good tool in helicopter based Search and Rescue missions in the near future. We are often hired by the Police and Mountain rescue service and see that this system has incredible potential when people are missing“, says Stefan Larsson, Market manager at Osterman Helicopter.

www.ostermanhelicopter.se